Hastings Seeks Delay Of Review By Judges

WASHINGTON -- U.S. District Judge Alcee Hastings on Monday asked a federal appeals court to block a panel of his judicial peers from recommending to Congress that it consider impeaching him.

The appeal seeks to prevent any such recommendation from being sent to Congress until the federal courts have fully heard Hastings` constitutional challenge to a 1980 law that allows federal judges to recommend congressional impeachment proceedings against their colleagues on the bench.

The Judicial Conference, a panel of 26 federal justices headed by Chief Justice Warren Burger, is scheduled to consider whether to ask Congress to begin impeachment proceedings when the conference meets in secret in Washington on Thursday and Friday.

But Terence Anderson, Hastings` Miami attorney, said only Congress has the constitutional power to review the conduct of federal judges and decide whether impeachment is warranted.

``The larger question really goes to whether this type of thing should be done at all,`` Anderson said of the judicial disciplinary review of his client, which was initiated by a panel of judges from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

The panel investigated Hastings` 1983 acquittal on bribery charges and concluded that he fabricated his defense during the trial.

He was acquitted of charges he sought $150,000 from two convicted racketeers in exchange for a reduction in their sentences.

``They (framers of the Constitution) did not contemplate judges acting as investigators and as prosecutors, nor judges acting as lobbyists to persuade Congress to remove a disfavored judge,`` Anderson said.

Hastings is appealing the decision last Friday by a federal judge in Washington who turned down his request to bar the Judicial Conference from sending an impeachment recommendation to the House of Representatives.

In his appeal, the embattled Lauderhill resident argued that the courts would be reluctant to consider his constitutional challenge to the law under which his colleagues are considering disciplining him once an impeachment recommendation reaches Congress.

``Our concern is that if it goes to Congress, there will be a whole line of new excuses of why the courts should not confront the merits of our case,`` Anderson said.

He expects the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to act on Hastings` appeal by the end of this week.